Binoculars
by silly pancake22
Summary: Barbara and Dick are forced to revisit their feelings for one another after their recent breakup. They come to realize that apart is not how they want to be.


All characters copyright to DC comics

A/N: Just to avoid any confusion

*In my world Batgirl never got shot by Joker, never became Oracle and she and Dick are destined to live a complicated happy life full of one-shot romances. Deal with it.

Batgirl=Barbara Gordon=Babs

Robin/Nightwing=Dick Grayson

"these quotations"= Speaking

'these quotations'= Thinking

Binoculars

Batgirl glanced down from the window to her watch, it was 1:13 a.m., she let out a heavy sigh and pressed her eyes back up to the binoculars and out the window.

She had been assigned to go on a twelve hour stakeout, surveying a building that had been marked for suspicious mob activity. This sort of assignment would ordinarily be no problem, only she had been assigned a partner, none other than Dick Grayson himself. So here they were, stuck in an old abandoned apartment complex, the wood on the walls was rotted, the glass windows broken, rats and roaches covered the corners of the room. Only 5 hours and 47 more minutes she repeated in her head.

Barbara and Dick had a long and eventful history with one another which had abruptly ended about a month ago. Dick and Barbara had been a couple before that,and a great one at that, but between the stress of Barbara finishing school, Robin escaping the shadow of Batman, and the stress of their double lives as crime fighters, they couldn't make it work. Robin reinvented himself and became Nightwing, he fled to Bloodhaven, leaving Barbara behind to forget him, only that didn't quite happen. She became bitter, resentful, as did he. Now the two heroes who were once madly in love were just plain mad.

'And Batman', Batgirl thought to herself, 'had the audacity to partner me up with _him_ on this mission.' She glanced away for a second to glare at Nightwing, they had spent most of their time together in complete silence. Neither of them had much to say to the other, so why say anything at all. He was sprawled out on the floor across from her, his forearm covering his face. 'Is he asleep?' She thought, 'Pompous ass.'

Barbara took advantage of this opportunity to walk across the room and pour herself another cup of coffee. The sound of her boots walking across the squeaky wooden floor boards stirred Nightwing from his sleep. His half-sleeping self managed to speak, "Hey, pour me a cup?". This was something a fully awake Dick would not have asked, not anymore.

Barbara hissed at him, "Get it yourself."

'Great, now she's mad, again. Nice going." He cursed himself.

Now Dick was not one for awkward silences, with a slight hopefulness he figured he might as well try and continue the conversation.

"Any luck?" He asked, accompanying Batgirl over by the window.

She let out an annoyed sigh, "No."

"Maybe it's a false alarm." He shrugged off her cold tone.

She turned her head towards him. "Or," Her voice began to rise, "It's because someone told that fat mob boss that Batman was on to him, so now they've wised up and gone under our radars, AGAIN!" She gathered herself up onto her feet, threw the binoculars onto Nightwing's lap and stomped across the room.

The anger in the room was contagious, "And thats my fault?" He snarked, tossing the binoculars across the room and getting up to follow her. "You know, it isn't nice to take out your anger on other people, I'm not your problem."

She turned to face him, pushing him away from her, "You're not my problem huh? You don't think so?"

Nightwing realized now what he had started.

"You. You are my ONLY problem, you, Dick Grayson are the very definition of my problem. So I'll go ahead and be mad if I want to."

He couldn't help but admit that she was right. When they couldn't work their relationship out, instead of facing the problem, Dick ran, Dick always ran from his problems. She had every right to be mad at him, hell, he was mad at himself.

"I'm sorry," He whispered. "I didn't mean to start this."

"Hah!" She scoffed. "No, but now that you have why don't you go ahead and run away so you don't have to end it?" She pointed towards the door.

"Barbara, you know I didn't-"

"Just shut up." Her tone weakened, she sounded a bit defeated. "Either leave now, or don't talk so that I can manage to do my job in peace." She tried to muster up her composure and took her seat back by the window.

Dick walked across the room, picked up the binoculars and gently handed them to her. Then backed himself into the corner of the room and slid down to the floor, landing with a thud. He ran his hands through his hair, 'Looks like you've managed to mess things up yet again Grayson.' he thought.

Why was this so hard? Why was talking things out so difficult for them now, talking used to be so easy. Dick could tell Barbara anything, and now expressing his feelings seemed impossible. The right words always seemed to lump up in his throat and the wrong ones would escape with ease. Dick continued cursing himself until his train of thoughts were broken by a small sound from across the room.

A tiny whimper escaped from Barbara's lips as she stared down at the binoculars lying on her lap. She bit her lip, why did she let that noise out? With any luck maybe Dick didn't hear it.

She heard Dick get up from his seat across the room, 'Damnit' she thought.

Sure enough, Dick walked up next to her and seated himself beside her. This was his last chance to say it, he thought.

"I want to apologize" His words were shaky, but stern.

Barbara tried to subtly wipe away a small tear, "It's too late for that now, what's done is done."

"It doesn't have to be that way, Barbara." He reached out his hand to cup her face. She pushed herself away from him and turned her head to face the wall. "So what? You just want me to pretend like nothing's happened, like nothing's changed?"

"That's not what I said." He was trying desperately to connect with her.

"Didn't I tell you to shut up" She hissed, she just wanted to end the conversation, it was becoming too painful.

Dick was growing frustrated. He rose to his feet and pulled Barbara up with him, he backed her against the wall and slammed his hand right next to her head. This startled her, but Dick's plan had worked, now he had her full attention, now she was going to listen.

"I'm sorry Barbara," His voice was loud and clear.

"I'm sorry for hurting you, for leaving you behind"

She whispered "stop-"

"I"M SORRY THAT I LOVE YOU BARBARA GORDON," His face was only inches away from hers.

"And that those feelings haven't changed since the day I left for Bloodhaven."

"I hate what I did to you," His voice got quiet again, this was the part that hurt him most,

"I hate that I was too scared to try and make it work, that I ran away, I'm a coward,"

Tears were forming in Barbara's eyes.

"But most of all, I hate that I'm stuck here, sitting in a room with the love of my life, and she won't even look at me."

Barbara looked up to meet his gaze for the first time all night, steaming hot tears were burning down her cheeks. She had imagined this moment every second since Dick had left, and now it was finally happening, she was overwhelmed with so many emotions, She sat down and began to sob.

Dick sat down and wrapped her in his arms, to his surprise she let him, he was half expecting her to slap him across the face.

"I need to tell you something," He said.

She wasn't sure how much more she could handle, but she picked her head up to listen.

"Batman didn't send us on this stakeout tonight, I did."

Confusion filled her gaze.

"I knew the only way you would talk to me is if you had nowhere else to go."

"So... there's no illegal mob activity going on in that building?" She managed to ask, wiping away her tears.

"Not that I'm aware of." Dick said jokingly.

All Barbara could do was laugh. "You asshole." She replied jokingly.

They sat in silence for a brief moment. A relief filled the room, it was the first silence that was neither awkward or hostile all night.

"Hey Babs," Dick started, he hadn't called her Babs in so long, but saying it now just felt right. He continued, "I really hope you can forgive me, I can't keep living my life without you, it just doesn't make any sense without you."

Those were the only words Barbara needed to hear, she knew now that Dick needed her, and she needed him. She rose up and straddled herself across Dick's lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Just kiss me you idiot."

And he did.

Thank you for taking the time to read, it feels good to write stories again!

P.S I had a hard time uploading this the first time, the text was all out of order and some of it was cut out altogether. Sorry if it inconvenienced any of you or made the story confusing. Hopefully now it's fixed! Let me know if you have any troubles reading it!


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